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From 2001 to 2016, membership in the WTO Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) nearly doubled, increasing from 27 to 47 WTO members. The plurilateral pact now covers almost 30% of the WTO membership. Three factors underlie its 20-member expansion over 16 years: European Union enlargement that added 13 member states; WTO commitments of five countries to pursue GPA accession; and voluntary initiatives of two countries. A Djaghe white paper, Expanding WTO Government Procurement Agreement Membership, provides an extensive examination of the expansion of GPA membership, based on a compilation of posts from Perspectives on Trade that address this subject.

The white paper continues with an examination of accessions to the GPA, focusing in particular on those that are based on commitments to seek GPA membership, which were made when the country became a WTO member. Of the four countries that joined the GPA in 2015 and 2016 (Montenegro, New Zealand, Ukraine and Moldova), all but New Zealand were fulfilling such commitments.

First, several posts take up the 2015 accessions of Montenegro and New Zealand:

The white paper then explores the pending GPA accessions of four WTO members (China, Australia, Kyrgyz Republic and Tajikistan) through a variety of posts, including “Progress in Expanding GPA“ and excerpts of posts, including from the GPA Updates series. All, except Australia, are obligated by WTO commitments to pursue GPA membership.

Several posts address the Russian Federation’s WTO commitment to join the GPA and its application for GPA membership. The white paper also includes posts that address the commitments of new WTO members (Kazakhstan and the Seychelles) to initiate GPA negotiations.

The white paper concludes with a description in “WTO GPA Update #5” of the “Checklist of Issues for Provision of Information Relating to Accession to the Revised Agreement on Government Procurement”, an important source of information in the accession process.